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COLUMN: Responsibility For South American Football Violence Falls To Authorities, Clubs

The aphorism "let the punishment fit the crime" is "unlikely to be heard much" in South American football's corridors of power, according to James Young of SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, who addressed violence in South American football in an opinion piece. Whether it is the week-in, week-out "thuggery of Brazil's torcidas organizadas and Argentina's barras bravas or the far too frequent tragedies served up in the Copa Libertadores," perhaps the only thing "more striking than the violence that scars the game across the continent is the inability of the authorities to do anything about the problem."

LIGHT TICKLE: Never was that "more evident than last weekend," when CONMEBOL passed judgment on the "mayhem that took place" during last Thursday's Boca Juniors vs. River Plate Libertadores game. The punishment was "not so much a slap as a light tickle on the wrist, given the anarchic and potentially tragic scenes witnessed at La Bombonera." Boca was kicked out of this year's competition, ordered to play its next four home CONMEBOL games behind closed doors (as well as having its fans banned from the next four away games in continental competition), and hit with a $200,000 fine. As far as the Argentine press was concerned, the punishment was "certainly lenient." Sports newspaper Olé said, "Cheap, very cheap," while La Nación said that "the sanctions weren't tough." Experienced South American football watchers will not "raise much of an eyebrow at such shenanigans." For decades CONMEBOL and national federations such as Argentina's AFA and Brazil's CBF have proved "singularly incapable of tackling the hooligan problem in their regions." Instead of "addressing the real causes of the violence, the authorities dish out what can often seem entirely random penalties on clubs." It is in the Libertadores where the "illogical nature" of CONMEBOL's disciplinary policy "comes to the forefront."

CONSISTENT FAILURE: The "only consistent thing" about South American football's governing body's "approach to tackling violence is the repeated failure of its results." At the same time, however, CONMEBOL's "weakness is arguably merely reflecting the culture of legal impunity that is notoriously rife in wider South American society." Earlier this year, Brazil's Folha de São Paulo newspaper reported that "no convictions have been made" for the 11 football-related murders in the city over the last 10 years -- the paper admitted the "real number of deaths is likely to be much higher." Still, if you "look hard enough, a few pale green shoots of hope have begun to emerge in this barren landscape." A number of Boca fan groups made "public apologies to River Plate and its players after PepperGate," with one image circulated on social media bearing the legend "on May 14th we were an international embarrassment." At a number of games in Brazil in recent months, "ordinary fans, fed up with the violence and the ensuing penalties served on their clubs, have booed their own torcidas organizadas. " And while there "does not seem to have been much progress made in terms of security checks on the way into grounds," clubs are at least "getting better at identifying trouble makers and handing them over to the police." After being identified, Adrian Napolitano, the Boca fan responsible for the pepper spray attack, said that he was "surprised that he was filmed." The parties involved in the "seemingly endless cycle of thuggery -- which include gang leaders who often claim (honestly or not) to be opposed to the violence while doing nothing to stamp it out, the weakness of the game's governing bodies, and the impunity and sluggishness of local justice systems -- can surely do more to clean up" South American football grounds. Addressing the "moral vacuum at the heart of so many of the region's clubs would be as good a place to start as any" (SI, 5/20).

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